Optus has warned the government’s plan to make phone companies retain metadata is enormously complex and could cost it more than $200 million to implement, while the government admitted it announced the decision before devising the details.

An internal memo prepared for Optus management warns costs would be passed on, and it takes issue with assumptions by Prime Minister
Tony Abbott
and Attorney-General
George Brandis
that the data was readily available because companies already kept it for commercial reasons.

“Optus’s interests would be served by ensuring a cost-recovery model is available, and that arguments to the effect that we ‘keep this data anyway’ do not prevail to the extent that inadequate recognition is given to the true cost and business impact," the memo says.

Communications Minister and Ozemail founder
Malcolm Turnbull
, who was controversially excluded from initial consultations on the proposal to mandate the retention of metadata for two years, admitted the details of the proposal were yet to be devised and there was potential for “a significant cost".

AFR
AFR

“There’s been a lot of speculation about what this might involve and I think that has got a little bit ahead of the policy," he said.

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Mr Turnbull said there was no clear definition of metadata, meaning it was yet to be decided what type of data and how much would have to be retained.

“If . . . the telcos should retain the type of data that they are currently retaining anyway, then there is no additional cost," he said. “If, on the other hand, telcos are required to re­cord, store and make accessible new classes of data in large volumes, then there obviously will be a significant cost."

Turnbull in clean-up mode

The proposal to mandate a two-year retention of metadata was designed to enable authorities to track all phone calls and internet use as part of a broader package of measures to combat the threat posed by Australians returning home after fighting with terror groups in Iraq and Syria.

But the announcement was derailed after Mr Abbott and Senator Brandis stumbled in trying to explain what metadata meant.

Mr Turnbull, like most other ministers, only found out after cabinet’s National Security Committee agreed on the idea and leaked it to the tabloids before cabinet was even consulted. Mr Turnbull was furious and has now been called in to help clean up the mess. He met on Thursday with Senator Brandis to start working out details.

The Optus memo reflects Mr Turnbull’s warnings about the complexity of the task, stating there are some 150 elements of data that may fall into the metadata or associated data category.

“The data which is held varies considerably between fixed, mobile, internet and web-mail services," it says. “There is no one definition of metadata. So, an important first step . . . is to seek a common language or definition."

The security agencies have explained that there would be a two-year record of the time and date of every phone call, from where it was made, to whom and for how long.

With the internet, there would be a record of every website visited, and when. If authorities wanted to see what part of a website was accessed, they would need a warrant.

The Optus memo says it stores various types of data for varying periods and much of it was not in the form to be readily accessed by authorities.

“Placing an over-arching data-retention regime . . . with rapid or automated inquiry capability would be a non-trivial change and cost," it says.

The memo cites the need for a “substantial additional data storage and inquiry capability".

“Based on work done in 2010 and refreshed in 2012, a data-retention regime could cost Optus in the order of $30-plus million to $200-plus million, depending on a range of assumptions about scope and definition," it says.